Your eating habits may affect your job performance!

Employees who eat healthy meals and exercise regularly are more productive at work. (AP)

SummaryEmployees who eat healthy meals and exercise regularly are more productive at work.

Employees who eat healthy meals and exercise regularly are more productive at work and have a better job performance, a new US study has claimed.

Researchers from the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), Brigham Young University and the Center for Health Research at Healthways found that employees who eat healthy all day long were 25 per cent more likely to have higher job performance.

While those who eat five or more servings of fruit and vegetables at least four times a week were 20 per cent more likely to be more productive, website BusinessNewsDaily reported.

In addition, employees who exercise for at least 30 minutes, three times a week, were 15 per cent more likely to have higher job performance.

Overall, absenteeism was 27 per cent lower for those workers who ate healthy and regularly exercised and that their job performance was 11 per cent higher than their peers who were obese, the study found.

Overweight workers experienced lower job performance and higher absenteeism, compared to those employees who suffer from depression and other chronic diseases or conditions.

"This latest study investigating the link between employee health, performance and productivity reinforces the business case for employers to provide comprehensive, evidence-based health management programs for their work force," said Jerry Noyce, president and CEO of HERO.

"Well-being is gaining recognition as an important measure that relates both to the quality of life of individuals as well as to financial measures that are important to business and government leaders," said Carter Coberley, vice president of Health Research and Outcomes at Healthways.

The study was based on data from three geographically dispersed US companies, representing 20,114 employees who completed a work-related survey each year from 2008 through 2010.

The research was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.